Ziibra represents nothing less than the future of the musician business, by crowdfunding monthly subscriptions from fans. Attractive to artists and fans alike.

Ziibra is a beautiful platform for a beautiful concept. We here at Songhack think it’s only a matter of time before “subscription patronage” sites like Ziibra become a common way for independent musicians to make money, much like crowdfunding is becoming.

In fact, Ziibra is really just crowdfunding on a monthly basis. Each fan pledges a certain monthly subscription in return for rewards. These are usually creative in nature — a new song, a new video, a new journal entry. But it could also be interactive — a 5-minute video chat with a fan every month at the $100 level, for example.

Make no mistake: Ziibra’s model is the future of music, and ahead of its time. There will be many musicians who don’t know what to do with it. But we urge you to check it out and see what you can do to develop a monthly fan subscription service. Number one, it’s going to keep you creative and productive, because all of the sudden you will have a paying fan base expecting their monthly reward. Number two, you will grow a steady stream of income from which to grow your business, a rare feat for the independent musician.

For such a new platform, Ziibra is immaculately polished. There are a few UX bugs here and there of the kind you’d expect from a new site, but the site itself is gorgeous, and the UX overall is sexy and minimalist. With built-in fulfillment and analytics tools, and a host of other mature features, it’s clear that Ziibra was well-planned and well-executed.

Ziibra takes 15% per transaction, which is quite high when compared to the 3% transaction fee you’d pay if you set up a similar system on your own website, for example, using PayPal and WordPress. Of course, Ziibra is turnkey and built specifically for this purpose, so the experience really doesn’t compare. The commission is significant, and significantly worth it… that is, if you can fulfill the commitment to monthly creative output that you’ll need to keep the value going for your fans.

Not exactly passive income — but if you pull it off, it will open up a new and lucrative revenue stream that will grow organically along with your fan base. Ziibra is blazing the trail for the fan subscription model.